McLaren boss Zak Brown says the FIA needs to come down hard on Red Bull after the team was found to have breached the sport’s cost cap rules in 2021, accusing the team of “cheating.”
Max Verstappen won his first world title after edging out Lewis Hamilton at the season’s final race, a win that has now been clouded by revelations the team exceeded the spending limit of $230 million.
Red Bull said it was “surprised and disappointment” by the findings.
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In a letter to fellow teams and the FIA, Brown said any team that broke the cap gained an “unfair advantage both in the current and following year’s car development.”
“The overspend breach, and possibly the procedural breaches, constitute cheating by offering a significant advantage across technical, sporting and financial regulations,” Brown wrote.
“The FIA has run an extremely thorough, collaborative and open process. We have even been given a one-year dress rehearsal [in 2020], with ample opportunity to seek any clarification if details were unclear. So, there is no reason for any team to now say they are surprised.”
The exact amount that Red Bull breached the cap by is yet to be revealed, only that it was less than 5 per cent of the cap, meaning somewhere up to $11.5 million.
“We don’t feel a financial penalty alone would be a suitable penalty for [an] overspend breach or a serious procedural breach, there clearly needs to be a sporting penalty in these instances, as determined by the FIA,” he added.
“We suggest that the overspend should be penalised by way of a reduction to the team’s cost cap in the year following the ruling and the penalty should be equal to the overspend plus a further fine.
“To avoid teams accumulating and benefitting from the multiplier effect of several minor overspend breaches, we suggest that a second minor overspend breach automatically moves the team to a major breach.
“Finally, given the financials involved, a 5 per cent threshold for a minor overspend breach seem far too large of a variance, we suggest a lower threshold [of] 2.5 per cent is more appropriate.”
The FIA is yet to announce a penalty for Red Bull. Under the rules, teams found guilty of a minor breach can be hit with a fine “and/or any minor sporting penalties.”
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